Fic: When You Rise (No Precious Time Series, 28/28)
Title: When You Rise (No Precious Time Series, 28/28)
Author: The Time Being/SGAtlantisLight
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Genre: Smutty angst, H/C
Rating: NC-17 overall, though some chapters are lower
Author's Notes: Part of the No Precious Time Series. Beta and encouragement from a lot of people, but especially lapislaz, mice1900, and inkscribe.
Warnings can be found here for those who can't read without them. These contain plot spoilers so do not read unless you can't live without knowing.
Disclaimer: I own them all! But, alas, not in this universe.
Previous chapter
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
"What the hell is this?" John demanded, waving the papers in the air, even though O'Neill couldn't see them through the phone.
"Ah. I assume you got the IOA's adjustments to your staffing needs."
"This Chang guy the Chinese are throwing at me is a total idiot! And Leontev doesn't have a creative bone in his body."
"Welcome to the politics of staffing by international committee."
"Now I know why Rodney was always saying his staff were idiots," John muttered.
***
"Come in!" John yelled distractedly at the knock on his office door, shuffling through manilla folders of possible applicants. He loved that these were 'possible applicants' and not people who had actually applied for the job. He didn't even look up. It was probably Walter with news from Atlantis.
"Too busy to even look your visitor in the eye, love?"
John's head snapped up at the beloved and much-missed brogue. "Carson?"
In seconds Carson was across the room and around the desk, leaning over to take his mouth in a hard kiss, fingers slipping into his hair and tugging, adjusting his angle.
"What are you doing here?" John asked when they broke apart, Carson climbing into his lap facing him and working his hands under John's shirt.
"I'm here on business," Carson answered, "but right now I want you, John."
John shuddered as Carson kissed him again. It had been months, his entire time back on Earth celibate save for some encounters with his own hand and a hard dildo. "How do you want me?" he asked, no thought of whether or not they should even be doing this entering his head.
"Right now? Over your desk, quick and dirty," Carson growled.
"Oh, God!" He closed his eyes, imagining Carson thrusting into him furiously. "Yeah... need you in me..."
Carson chuckled, low and evil. "Oh, no, John. This time I want you in my arse." John gasped as Carson squeezed him through the fabric of his pants. Carson stood, kicking off his trainers and then quickly divesting himself of his khakis. Carson raised an eyebrow. "Unless you're not interested."
John was on his feet at once, practically ripping his fly open and pushing his pants down. Carson grinned and turned, leaning hands on the desk and spreading his legs. Something gleamed from between his asscheeks. John reached forward, palming those perfect globes of flesh and parted them. A metal ring glinted against his hole, attached to a thin shaft disappearing within. "A butt plug?" John asked, fingering the warm metal.
"Aye. A surprise for you, love. Pull it out."
John slipped his index finger through the ring and pulled, causing Carson to gasp as the gleaming head of the butt plug slid free. The scent of semen rose from the plug and Carson's slick hole, a stream of viscous, creamy fluid spilling out of him. "Oh, my God," John gasped.
"It's Rodney's," Carson said, voice rough. "He fucked me just before I came through the gate and then plugged my arse so I'd still be full of his come for you."
Rodney couldn't be here, but Carson had still found a way to include him, to bring all three of them together again. John's emotional vocabulary was inadquate to the deeper feelings welling up in him, leaving him only with 'hot' and 'fuck' and 'mine.' Wordlessly, John placed a hand in the center of Carson's shoulder blades and pushed him down, then used his other hand to position his cock against Carson's opening. "Need to take you hard," he gasped.
"Take me. I'm ready."
John thrust forward, burying himself to the hilt, shuddering at the heat and tightness that surrounded him, the thought of Rodney's come coating Carson's channel and John's cock, lubricating their joining. "Not going to last long."
"There'll be time for slow later," Carson growled, pushing back. "Just fuck me."
And John did, pounding into Carson deep and hard and raw, churning Rodney's semen inside Carson, feeling it coat his cock and flow out with every thrust to slick his dark pubic hair and ooze onto his balls. The scent of Rodney's semen and Carson's arousal curled into John's nostrils, musky and familiar, home, home, home.
Carson pushed back, meeting him thrust for thrust, John's hand holding him bent over the desk, moaning continuously.
"Don't come yet," John gasped, pushing Carson down even harder as he slammed forward, white-hot pleasure pouring out of him and filling Carson, mixing with Rodney's fluid as he continued to thrust.
Carson whimpered as John pulled out, watching semen run out and down Carson's thigh. John pulled Carson upright and turned him, dropping to his knees and swallowing his lover before Carson had the chance to react.
"Yesssss..." Carson hissed, hips snapping forward to impale John's throat with his length, cock already throbbing and filling him, John swallowing greedily.
They both ended up collapsed on the floor, nearly under John's desk, faces pressed together, kissing.
"We miss you so much. We love you," Carson whispered. "Come home, John. Come home to us."
"I will," John promised. "Soon."
***
Carson looked up and smiled as John stepped into the hospital room. John's eyes worriedly swept over the tiny child as Veza carefully shifted him into her husband's arms, careful, as always, of the wires and tubes. She stood and slipped her arms around John, laying her head on his chest as she hugged him.
"Thank you for coming, John."
John dropped a kiss on her head, returning her hug. It was a strange contrast to the man most people saw, an affection reserved for his fellow ex-slaves. "Of course I'd come. How is he?"
"He's beautiful, but so weak," she answered, leading him over to sit next to Isilf.
"What's his name?" John asked, staring at the baby, who met his gaze with bright blue eyes.
"He has none. My people never name their children until they're three months old," Veza answered. "It allows us time to learn who they are first."
And dampens the heartbreak when a child dies, Carson thought. John carefully fingered the child's dark hair, his gaze flickering to Carson, questioning. Carson looked away.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," John assured.
"I hope," she whispered. "To fix the heart must be a very delicate thing."
"Yeah. It is. But doctors are good at that."
Carson looked up and met John's eyes.
***
"Anything else?" Elizabeth asked, glancing around the conference table. "All right, then. As our last order of business, I have an announcement to make. The SGC has just informed me that the director of the new X-305 project has chosen Atlantis for prototype development. This project will be an entirely new, top-level division on Atlantis, with the director answering directly to me. He'll be bringing in a sizeable staff for which we need to make room, assuring appropriate resource availability. Colonel Lorne, we need to check and clear living quarters. Rodney, he'll need suitable workspace close to our current engineering labs, if possible. I'll send you both the specifications in email. We have a month before he arrives with his initial staff."
"Wait, wait, wait. Do we know anything about this guy? Why would he pick Atlantis for his project base? Isn't that a little risky?" Rodney asked.
"The X-305 incorporates some Ancient technology and is specifically designed to go through the gate. Obviously, the program director wanted to be here where Ancient parts are more readily available and the Ancient database accessible. Not to mention getting it out from under the nose of the Ori."
"And the guy?"
"He's ex-military who went into astronautics after retirement."
"Great," Rodney gruffed. "An ex-military hard-case."
Elizabeth smiled. "You won't mind because Carson should be arriving on the Daedalus at the same time."
A corner of Rodney's mouth went up, but there was still sadness in his eyes. "Yeah. I suppose so."
It was going to be a long month for Rodney, she knew. He'd been moping since Carson left, eyes going large and scared when someone brought up that Carson was probably spending a lot of time with John.
***
Rodney stood impatiently watching the new expedition members filing out of the Daedalus. "Where the hell is he?" He was hungry and had spent much too long eating and sleeping alone.
Elizabeth pointed. "There, right behind Veza and Isilf."
Rodney's heart did a strange flip at the sight of his lover, finally home, and he began pushing through the crowd, eyes on Carson, when he barrelled into someone.
"Hey, watch it!"
Rodney blinked, looking up into a familiar face. "Kavanagh? What are you doing here? I didn't hire you back."
"I'm the assistant director of the X-305 program, McKay."
"You're... What sort of a moron would hire you?"
"I did," a voice drawled behind Rodney, causing a shiver to run down his spine.
He turned and took in Carson and John standing together, their fingers intertwined, John's face split in a huge grin, while Carson face shone with joy. "Hello, love," Carson greeted.
"You!" Rodney spluttered, staring at John, almost afraid to believe his eyes. "You're the director of the X-305 program?"
John stepped forward, enveloping Rodney in his arms and smiling down at him, his eyes asking permission before he pressed a slow, soft kiss to Rodney's mouth, the taste of him, the shape of his mouth strange and yet familiar.
"Welcome back to Atlantis," Elizabeth said, stepping up to them as they drew apart, "... Doctor Sheppard."
John smiled at her as Carson slipped his arms around both his lovers, John flinging an arm around Carson's waist and giving a chuckle at Rodney's look of disbelief. "Thank you, Elizabeth. It's good to be home."
"Doctor?" Rodney demanded. "Since when?"
"I was actually working on my doctorate while I was at McMurdo. When I realised I was going to need a job, I got back in touch with my thesis advisor and we worked something out. Radek helped me knock my thesis into shape and I defended about a week after I got to Earth, in the middle of getting the X-305 project approved for initial simulations, pre-prototype."
"And you were going to tell me this when?" Rodney glowered at both John and Carson.
John grinned. "Just now. Didn't you wonder why Elizabeth never mentioned the name of the head of the project?"
"Um." She hadn't? Rodney rifled through his memory and realised that was right. "You know how bad I am at names," he defended. "I figured I'd just forgotten it."
Elizabeth smiled, a sparkle in her eyes. "Well, Doctor John Sheppard was one name I knew you wouldn't forget."
"So you always knew you were coming back?"
Kavanagh snorted. John shook his head. "At first I wasn't sure I wanted to."
Rodney flinched. He knew it wasn't about him, but it still stung.
"And it wasn't like there were any guarantees the project was going to fly or that I'd get approval to bring it here." John pulled him in for another kiss. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't make any promises." His eyes conveyed so much more than his words, sorrow and apology and hope and joy.
Rodney found his eyes pricking. "Well, I guess that makes sense," he said gruffly, blinking his eyes to keep from crying in front of Elizabeth or, worse yet, Kavanagh. John was here. John wanted to be here, had fought to get here. Kavanagh broke the spell by shaking his head, rolling his eyes and walking off. "But did you really need to bring Kavanagh?"
"I heard that!" the scientist called over his shoulder.
John shrugged. "I figured you needed some bad news along with the good or you'd be looking for the other shoe to drop."
"Are you saying I'm paranoid?"
"Aren't you?" Carson asked, pushing them both toward the entryway. "I'm starving. We'll talk over dinner, lads."
"But don't eat too much." John leered.
Rodney momentarily forgot about his rumbling stomach as the image of John, naked and writhing under him, filled his mind. He smiled for what felt like the first time in six months.
***
John stared up at the ceiling, sated, feeling the stretch of well-abused flesh, tasting the slight tang of Carson in his mouth, smelling their combined scents of sweat and sex. They'd had dinner. They'd talked. And then they'd slipped into the bed, taking their time with just exploring before moving on to sex.
"What happens when this project is over?" Rodney asked, voice small.
"I'll find something else to do."
"On Atlantis?"
He turned, fixing Rodney with his gaze. "Yeah. On Atlantis. Even if I have to be a cook or something."
Rodney made a face. "I'd hire you in sciences before I'd let you cook."
John wasn't sure which was more insulting-- that Rodney, lover of hospital food, figured him for a bad cook or that Rodney would only hire him to keep him from cooking. "Gee, thanks, Rodney. I feel so loved."
Carson curled up against him, pressing a kiss to the nape of his neck. "You are loved, John, and don't you ever forget it."
"Or we'll kill you," Rodney said.
John chuckled and kissed Rodney, then turned his head to kiss Carson as well. He laid back and smiled as his lovers leaned across him, their lips meeting, remembering how watching them together, before, had filled him with a vague jealousy. Now, his only thought was how hot they looked together and how nice their bodies felt against his.
"No more leaving," he promised, closing his eyes and settling back to sleep. "I promise."
His lovers curled, warm and heavy and real, against him. Atlantis sang at the back of his mind. It no longer mattered that there were bad memories here; they were far outweighed by the two men who'd taken him into their lives, their relationship, their bed. He was finally home.
***End***
Author: The Time Being/SGAtlantisLight
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Genre: Smutty angst, H/C
Rating: NC-17 overall, though some chapters are lower
Author's Notes: Part of the No Precious Time Series. Beta and encouragement from a lot of people, but especially lapislaz, mice1900, and inkscribe.
Warnings can be found here for those who can't read without them. These contain plot spoilers so do not read unless you can't live without knowing.
Disclaimer: I own them all! But, alas, not in this universe.
Previous chapter
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
"What the hell is this?" John demanded, waving the papers in the air, even though O'Neill couldn't see them through the phone.
"Ah. I assume you got the IOA's adjustments to your staffing needs."
"This Chang guy the Chinese are throwing at me is a total idiot! And Leontev doesn't have a creative bone in his body."
"Welcome to the politics of staffing by international committee."
"Now I know why Rodney was always saying his staff were idiots," John muttered.
***
"Come in!" John yelled distractedly at the knock on his office door, shuffling through manilla folders of possible applicants. He loved that these were 'possible applicants' and not people who had actually applied for the job. He didn't even look up. It was probably Walter with news from Atlantis.
"Too busy to even look your visitor in the eye, love?"
John's head snapped up at the beloved and much-missed brogue. "Carson?"
In seconds Carson was across the room and around the desk, leaning over to take his mouth in a hard kiss, fingers slipping into his hair and tugging, adjusting his angle.
"What are you doing here?" John asked when they broke apart, Carson climbing into his lap facing him and working his hands under John's shirt.
"I'm here on business," Carson answered, "but right now I want you, John."
John shuddered as Carson kissed him again. It had been months, his entire time back on Earth celibate save for some encounters with his own hand and a hard dildo. "How do you want me?" he asked, no thought of whether or not they should even be doing this entering his head.
"Right now? Over your desk, quick and dirty," Carson growled.
"Oh, God!" He closed his eyes, imagining Carson thrusting into him furiously. "Yeah... need you in me..."
Carson chuckled, low and evil. "Oh, no, John. This time I want you in my arse." John gasped as Carson squeezed him through the fabric of his pants. Carson stood, kicking off his trainers and then quickly divesting himself of his khakis. Carson raised an eyebrow. "Unless you're not interested."
John was on his feet at once, practically ripping his fly open and pushing his pants down. Carson grinned and turned, leaning hands on the desk and spreading his legs. Something gleamed from between his asscheeks. John reached forward, palming those perfect globes of flesh and parted them. A metal ring glinted against his hole, attached to a thin shaft disappearing within. "A butt plug?" John asked, fingering the warm metal.
"Aye. A surprise for you, love. Pull it out."
John slipped his index finger through the ring and pulled, causing Carson to gasp as the gleaming head of the butt plug slid free. The scent of semen rose from the plug and Carson's slick hole, a stream of viscous, creamy fluid spilling out of him. "Oh, my God," John gasped.
"It's Rodney's," Carson said, voice rough. "He fucked me just before I came through the gate and then plugged my arse so I'd still be full of his come for you."
Rodney couldn't be here, but Carson had still found a way to include him, to bring all three of them together again. John's emotional vocabulary was inadquate to the deeper feelings welling up in him, leaving him only with 'hot' and 'fuck' and 'mine.' Wordlessly, John placed a hand in the center of Carson's shoulder blades and pushed him down, then used his other hand to position his cock against Carson's opening. "Need to take you hard," he gasped.
"Take me. I'm ready."
John thrust forward, burying himself to the hilt, shuddering at the heat and tightness that surrounded him, the thought of Rodney's come coating Carson's channel and John's cock, lubricating their joining. "Not going to last long."
"There'll be time for slow later," Carson growled, pushing back. "Just fuck me."
And John did, pounding into Carson deep and hard and raw, churning Rodney's semen inside Carson, feeling it coat his cock and flow out with every thrust to slick his dark pubic hair and ooze onto his balls. The scent of Rodney's semen and Carson's arousal curled into John's nostrils, musky and familiar, home, home, home.
Carson pushed back, meeting him thrust for thrust, John's hand holding him bent over the desk, moaning continuously.
"Don't come yet," John gasped, pushing Carson down even harder as he slammed forward, white-hot pleasure pouring out of him and filling Carson, mixing with Rodney's fluid as he continued to thrust.
Carson whimpered as John pulled out, watching semen run out and down Carson's thigh. John pulled Carson upright and turned him, dropping to his knees and swallowing his lover before Carson had the chance to react.
"Yesssss..." Carson hissed, hips snapping forward to impale John's throat with his length, cock already throbbing and filling him, John swallowing greedily.
They both ended up collapsed on the floor, nearly under John's desk, faces pressed together, kissing.
"We miss you so much. We love you," Carson whispered. "Come home, John. Come home to us."
"I will," John promised. "Soon."
***
Carson looked up and smiled as John stepped into the hospital room. John's eyes worriedly swept over the tiny child as Veza carefully shifted him into her husband's arms, careful, as always, of the wires and tubes. She stood and slipped her arms around John, laying her head on his chest as she hugged him.
"Thank you for coming, John."
John dropped a kiss on her head, returning her hug. It was a strange contrast to the man most people saw, an affection reserved for his fellow ex-slaves. "Of course I'd come. How is he?"
"He's beautiful, but so weak," she answered, leading him over to sit next to Isilf.
"What's his name?" John asked, staring at the baby, who met his gaze with bright blue eyes.
"He has none. My people never name their children until they're three months old," Veza answered. "It allows us time to learn who they are first."
And dampens the heartbreak when a child dies, Carson thought. John carefully fingered the child's dark hair, his gaze flickering to Carson, questioning. Carson looked away.
"I'm sure he'll be fine," John assured.
"I hope," she whispered. "To fix the heart must be a very delicate thing."
"Yeah. It is. But doctors are good at that."
Carson looked up and met John's eyes.
***
"Anything else?" Elizabeth asked, glancing around the conference table. "All right, then. As our last order of business, I have an announcement to make. The SGC has just informed me that the director of the new X-305 project has chosen Atlantis for prototype development. This project will be an entirely new, top-level division on Atlantis, with the director answering directly to me. He'll be bringing in a sizeable staff for which we need to make room, assuring appropriate resource availability. Colonel Lorne, we need to check and clear living quarters. Rodney, he'll need suitable workspace close to our current engineering labs, if possible. I'll send you both the specifications in email. We have a month before he arrives with his initial staff."
"Wait, wait, wait. Do we know anything about this guy? Why would he pick Atlantis for his project base? Isn't that a little risky?" Rodney asked.
"The X-305 incorporates some Ancient technology and is specifically designed to go through the gate. Obviously, the program director wanted to be here where Ancient parts are more readily available and the Ancient database accessible. Not to mention getting it out from under the nose of the Ori."
"And the guy?"
"He's ex-military who went into astronautics after retirement."
"Great," Rodney gruffed. "An ex-military hard-case."
Elizabeth smiled. "You won't mind because Carson should be arriving on the Daedalus at the same time."
A corner of Rodney's mouth went up, but there was still sadness in his eyes. "Yeah. I suppose so."
It was going to be a long month for Rodney, she knew. He'd been moping since Carson left, eyes going large and scared when someone brought up that Carson was probably spending a lot of time with John.
***
Rodney stood impatiently watching the new expedition members filing out of the Daedalus. "Where the hell is he?" He was hungry and had spent much too long eating and sleeping alone.
Elizabeth pointed. "There, right behind Veza and Isilf."
Rodney's heart did a strange flip at the sight of his lover, finally home, and he began pushing through the crowd, eyes on Carson, when he barrelled into someone.
"Hey, watch it!"
Rodney blinked, looking up into a familiar face. "Kavanagh? What are you doing here? I didn't hire you back."
"I'm the assistant director of the X-305 program, McKay."
"You're... What sort of a moron would hire you?"
"I did," a voice drawled behind Rodney, causing a shiver to run down his spine.
He turned and took in Carson and John standing together, their fingers intertwined, John's face split in a huge grin, while Carson face shone with joy. "Hello, love," Carson greeted.
"You!" Rodney spluttered, staring at John, almost afraid to believe his eyes. "You're the director of the X-305 program?"
John stepped forward, enveloping Rodney in his arms and smiling down at him, his eyes asking permission before he pressed a slow, soft kiss to Rodney's mouth, the taste of him, the shape of his mouth strange and yet familiar.
"Welcome back to Atlantis," Elizabeth said, stepping up to them as they drew apart, "... Doctor Sheppard."
John smiled at her as Carson slipped his arms around both his lovers, John flinging an arm around Carson's waist and giving a chuckle at Rodney's look of disbelief. "Thank you, Elizabeth. It's good to be home."
"Doctor?" Rodney demanded. "Since when?"
"I was actually working on my doctorate while I was at McMurdo. When I realised I was going to need a job, I got back in touch with my thesis advisor and we worked something out. Radek helped me knock my thesis into shape and I defended about a week after I got to Earth, in the middle of getting the X-305 project approved for initial simulations, pre-prototype."
"And you were going to tell me this when?" Rodney glowered at both John and Carson.
John grinned. "Just now. Didn't you wonder why Elizabeth never mentioned the name of the head of the project?"
"Um." She hadn't? Rodney rifled through his memory and realised that was right. "You know how bad I am at names," he defended. "I figured I'd just forgotten it."
Elizabeth smiled, a sparkle in her eyes. "Well, Doctor John Sheppard was one name I knew you wouldn't forget."
"So you always knew you were coming back?"
Kavanagh snorted. John shook his head. "At first I wasn't sure I wanted to."
Rodney flinched. He knew it wasn't about him, but it still stung.
"And it wasn't like there were any guarantees the project was going to fly or that I'd get approval to bring it here." John pulled him in for another kiss. "I'm sorry, but I couldn't make any promises." His eyes conveyed so much more than his words, sorrow and apology and hope and joy.
Rodney found his eyes pricking. "Well, I guess that makes sense," he said gruffly, blinking his eyes to keep from crying in front of Elizabeth or, worse yet, Kavanagh. John was here. John wanted to be here, had fought to get here. Kavanagh broke the spell by shaking his head, rolling his eyes and walking off. "But did you really need to bring Kavanagh?"
"I heard that!" the scientist called over his shoulder.
John shrugged. "I figured you needed some bad news along with the good or you'd be looking for the other shoe to drop."
"Are you saying I'm paranoid?"
"Aren't you?" Carson asked, pushing them both toward the entryway. "I'm starving. We'll talk over dinner, lads."
"But don't eat too much." John leered.
Rodney momentarily forgot about his rumbling stomach as the image of John, naked and writhing under him, filled his mind. He smiled for what felt like the first time in six months.
***
John stared up at the ceiling, sated, feeling the stretch of well-abused flesh, tasting the slight tang of Carson in his mouth, smelling their combined scents of sweat and sex. They'd had dinner. They'd talked. And then they'd slipped into the bed, taking their time with just exploring before moving on to sex.
"What happens when this project is over?" Rodney asked, voice small.
"I'll find something else to do."
"On Atlantis?"
He turned, fixing Rodney with his gaze. "Yeah. On Atlantis. Even if I have to be a cook or something."
Rodney made a face. "I'd hire you in sciences before I'd let you cook."
John wasn't sure which was more insulting-- that Rodney, lover of hospital food, figured him for a bad cook or that Rodney would only hire him to keep him from cooking. "Gee, thanks, Rodney. I feel so loved."
Carson curled up against him, pressing a kiss to the nape of his neck. "You are loved, John, and don't you ever forget it."
"Or we'll kill you," Rodney said.
John chuckled and kissed Rodney, then turned his head to kiss Carson as well. He laid back and smiled as his lovers leaned across him, their lips meeting, remembering how watching them together, before, had filled him with a vague jealousy. Now, his only thought was how hot they looked together and how nice their bodies felt against his.
"No more leaving," he promised, closing his eyes and settling back to sleep. "I promise."
His lovers curled, warm and heavy and real, against him. Atlantis sang at the back of his mind. It no longer mattered that there were bad memories here; they were far outweighed by the two men who'd taken him into their lives, their relationship, their bed. He was finally home.
***End***